NORTH CAROLINA POETRY SOCIETY PINE WHISPERS Fall 2008 Fall Meeting Celebrating Poets Saturday, September 20 by Sara Claytor Weymouth Center Features: Southern Pines, North Carolina On Saturday, September 29, we will celebrate our 2008 Brockman- President’s Message!! 2 9:15!!! Registration & Campbell Book Award winner, Becky !!!!!!! order lunch or bring Gould Gibson. For the first time, we New members""" 3 !!!!!!! your own (coffee & will also have selected poems read by !!!!!!!!nibbles in the kitchen) two Honorable Mentions, Linda Annas Kudos"""" 4 Ferguson and Barbara Presnell. ! Brockman-Campbell winner" 5 10:00! Short Business Meeting !!!!!! Sue Farlow presiding In addition, the four recognized Sam Ragan Festival"" 7 !!!!!!!Greetings by Ed Southern, poets from the North Carolina Writers’ Poetry contest guidelines " 8-9 !!!!!!!director of NCWN Network competition (Randall Jarrell ! Poetry Contest) will read their award- Board and committee chairs" 10 10:15! Brockman-Campbell winning poems: 1st prize, Joanna !!!!!!!Book Award reading by Catherine Scott; 2nd prize, Marjorie Brockman-Campbell Judge " 11 !!!!!!!Becky Gould Gibson, Hudson; Honorable Mention, Allison Gilbert-Chappell information" 11 introduction Elrod and also recognized by the judge, by Jenny Braswell James Applewhite, Fred Bahnson. Ed Pencil in: " 12 ! Readings by Honorable Southern, the director of the North !!!!!!! Mentions in B-C Contest Carolina Writers’ Network, will bring Afterwards, we will have ! greetings. a reception to honor the award- 11:10! Randell Jarrell Poetry winning poets and plenty !!!!! Contest winners read Our afternoon session will of time for book signings and ! involve a panel of NC presses in an individual talks with the 11:30! Open mic & new authors information/discussion presentation press representatives. ! with time for audience questions. 12:00!! Lunch, book room open Main Street Rag based in Charlotte As usual, the members (M. Scott Douglass, editor-publisher), may sell copies of their 1:00!!!!Information/discussion poetry books in the Book !!!!!!! panel of NC presses Press 53 located in Winston-Salem Room. You may make lunch ! (Kevin Watson and Sheryl Monks, orders in advance. If you 2:00!!! Open mic finale co-editors-publishers), and Old have not done so, members ! Mountain Press (Tom Davis, should pick up their copies 2:15!!!! Reception for poets editor of Fayetteville) will spearhead press reps of the 2008 Pinesong in the Interact with the group. Book Signings Book Room. 1 President’s Message by Sue Farlow By now you all have probably noticed that we changed the name of our newsletter. Pine Whispers. It evokes Robert Frost’s woods, “lovely dark and deep.” It also conjures images of Weymouth Woods. I have walked in those woods many times and have listened to the whispers. I like the name since it fits along with our anthology, Pinesong. Hope you like the change. You need to mark another important change on your calendar as soon as you put the newsletter down. The date of the Sam Ragan Poetry Festival will move from the 3rd Saturday in June to the 2nd Saturday in March. The board struggled with this change, but I feel we have made the right decision. Attendance at the SRPF over the past several years has been notably down. June is a busy month for weddings and vacations. Hopefully, this will allow more members to attend. We will have something to look forward to between our winter meeting and Awards Day. I have been on the board for five years and this past Sam Ragan Festival is the first one I have missed (yes, for a wedding – my son got married). I have heard from several people how much they enjoyed it, particularly Keith Flynn and Michael Beadle. Our own Bill Griffin got high marks with his camp songs. Many people on their evaluations expressed concern that attendance was sparse. We hope a March meeting will bring more people out. You may also notice in the newsletter that there are several board openings and committee chair vacancies. If you would like to become a board member or committee chair, please e-mail me at [email protected]. I’ll be glad to answer any questions about the positions. I am excited about our September meeting. 1st vice president, Sara Claytor has already been working on it. I am looking forward to hearing the poets read. NCPS co-sponsors this event with the North Carolina Writer’s Network. Ed Southern, the director will be on hand for the meeting. The afternoon panel of publishers will show members the intricacies of getting published. See you in September. Remember eMuse The NCPS eMuse is alive and kicking and coming to an inbox near you every month! The E-Muse is "poetry-related news you can use supplied by NCPS members for NCPS members". If you haven't been receiving this monthly e-mail and would like to, please drop a quick line to NCPS Publicity Chair, Caren Stuart at [email protected]. If you're participating in or know of any poetry events, open mics, festivals, readings, workshops, calls to poets, etc. THIS is your forum for sharing that information with your fellow poets and lovers of poetry. To submit an E-Muse item, e-mail [email protected] with your first and last name, a BRIEF write-up of your listing, contact info for interested parties to use in case of questions, and the month(s) in which you would like the listing to be sent out to NCPS members. Listings are run at the discretion of NCPS and must be received at least one week before the start of their intended month. Listings requiring extensive editing may not run. It takes a community to raise some eMuse.... 2 QUELLING WITH THE QUILL OR BATTLING THE DREADED MOCKO JUMBIES OF YOUR LIFE C. Pleasants York On a recent trip to the Virgin Islands, I was perusing a map of St. John and was amused to see a protrusion of land into the Caribbean Sea called Pen Point. In this tropical area where the arts are a lifeblood of the people, it is refreshing to see such poetic nomenclature. In a book of Caribbean myths and legends, I further discovered that the way to convince an evil spirit to leave quietly is to point a pen at him. I think back over all the times in my life when I have quelled the evil spirits – not just the towering mocko jumbie island spirits of good and evil destiny, but the equally devastating spirits of doubt and discouragement and fear - by taking out a pen and writing out my feelings, letting my ideas flow onto the paper. Seeing the words on the page has given me clarity and self-assurance, a reality more essential than the goatskins and cowry shells and mirrors of the mocko jumbies. The pen is, indeed, mightier than the sword, whether it comes from exorcising demons or writing a sonnet. As writers, we have the power. Welcome, New Members, to the North Carolina Poetry Society. The power is yours! BARBARA BOOB (CHENOWETH) JACKSON; a children’s coloring JANE PENLAND HOOVER 3032 TWATCHMAN DRIVE book, PICKABERRY PIG; a how-to A 173 26000 CROASDAILE FARM RALEIGH, NC 27616 book on writing a ranger patrol order, PKWY (919) 389-3527 THE PATROL ORDER; and an action DURHAM, NC 27705 [email protected] adventure novel, THE R-COMPLEX. (919) 384-2820 Born in Smithfield, Barbara Tom lives in Fayetteville, North [email protected] was graduated from UNC-Wilmington Carolina and is publisher of the Old Jane Penland Hoover is a with a BA in Early Childhood Mountain Press with information Georgia native who, after her Education and a Masters Degree from available at husband’s stroke, operated retirement East Carolina University in Education. www.OldMountainPress.com housing for 24 years. She also She attended the Communication facilitated writing groups and then School of Arts in Raleigh and is TERRI KIRBY ERICKSON moved to Durham, North Carolina to interested in photography and writing 130 SEDGEWICK RIDGE COURT be closer to their daughters. She books for children. She recently read LEWISVILLE, NC 27023 published an essay and a poem in the her book MONSTERFIX at Quail (336) 945-4105 American Heart Association’s Ridge Books. “My writing comes [email protected] STROKE CONNECTION in 2008. from my inner soul,” wrote Barbara. Terri Kirby Erickson, author “Life speaks to me and poetry of the book, THREAD COUNT, has SANDRA HUDSON provides that venue for the expression been published by PARIS VOICE, PO BOX 35 of creative thoughts. I began writing THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE NEW LONDON, NC 28127 poetry at the age of 12.” MONITOR, the Northwest Cultural (704) 463-1222 Council, and the N.C. Arts Council. [email protected] TOM DAVIS Her work is in FORSYTH WOMAN, 2542 S. EDGEWATER DRIVE in five anthologies by Old Mountain PATSY K. LAIN FAYETTETTEVILLE, NC 28303 Press, and others. She lives in 124 KENNEDY CIRCLE (910) 484-5887 Lewisville, North Carolina. HUBERT, NC 28539 [email protected] [email protected] Tom Davis’s publishing RAY GONZALES credits include POETS FORUM, THE 303 CARY PINES DRIVE “My desire to write blossomed as a CAROLINA RUNNER, CARY, NC 27513 young woman, and dwindled with the TRIATHLON TODAY, GEORGIA (919) 462-0623 survival of life,” wrote Patsy. “Once ATHLETE, THE FAYETTEVILLE [email protected] again I take pen in hand and visit this OBSERVER’S SATURDAY EXTRA, passion of writing.” A LOVING VOICE Vol. I and II, and NINA O. FOSTER SPECIAL WARFARE. He has 1409 ENCHANTED OAKS DRIVE authored a collection of short stories, RALEIGH, NC 27606 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP (919) 664-8084 continued on page 6 [email protected] 3 Kudos: member’s honor ro! Brenda Kay Ledford's poetry Jo Barbara Taylor has her poem Early this fall Main Street Rag will chapbook, Sacred Fire, is “Judy” selected for publication in publish a poetry book by Sara upcoming this fall with the fall\winter issue of Ibbetson Claytor, entitled Howling on Red Finishing Line Press.